GOP lawmakers blast Obama over militant release

11/16/12 7:35 PM EST

AP Photo

Republicans on the Hill are blasting President Obama for failing to stop the Iraqi government from releasing a Hezbollah commander suspected in the killing of five Americans.

The State Department confirmed Friday that Iraqi officials released Ali Mussa Daqduq, despite repeated pleas from the Obama administration to keep him in custody. Even Vice President Joe Biden made a personal entreaty as recently as Tuesday, a White House official told POLITICO.

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said the release shows America's influence is waning because of Obama's “failed foreign policy.”

“The United States now has so little influence that it could not prevail upon the Iraqi government to extradite Daqduq to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes,” they said in a joint statement.

Over in the House, the chairs of the Armed Services, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs committees blamed Obama for turning over Daqduq to Iraqi authorities in the first place and for failing to secure a long-term cooperation agreement with Iraq that also may have averted his release.

"Due to this failure, a senior Hezbollah operative with American blood on his hands is now free in one of the most unstable regions of the world,” said a joint statement issued by reps. Howard McKeon, Mike Rogers, Lamar Smith and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The State Department rejected the idea that the release is a sign of waning influence.

“There are many, many things that we work together with the Iraqis on, both in terms of the internal situation in Iraq as well as our regional work together, not least of being Syria and our efforts to ensure that Iraqi air and land space is not abused to arm the Syrians,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The United States believes Daqduq masterminded a raid on a U.S. military base in Karbala in 2007 that killed five Americans, according to the Associated Press. He is also suspected of working with Iranians to train militias to attack U.S. forces. He had been in U.S. custody for nearly four years but was turned over to Iraq when Americans pulled out of the country last year.

The administration had tried to extradite Daqduq to the United States but an Iraqi judge denied the request in August, saying Daqduq had already been tried for the killings in Iraqi courts and was acquitted, the AP reported. The judge ordered him released.

At the time, Biden called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and asked him to keep Daqduq in custody anyway. On Tuesday, the vice president tried once more, expressing his “strong objection” to the release, according to the White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Nuland said Iraqi authorities told the Obama administration “that they determined that they were no longer able to hold him under Iraqi law.” She said the United States will continue to pursue Daqduq, who is now believed to be in Beirut, according to multiple news reports.

“As with other terrorists who we believe have committed crimes against Americans, we are going to continue to pursue all legal means to see that Daqduq sees justice for the crimes of which he is accused,” she said.